BEETLES at AEOE Conference

We’re excited to announce that we’ll be back at California’s Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education Statewide Spring Conference. This year AEOE’s conference theme is “Creating a Culture of Science” and will take place April 27-28, 2018 at Camp Hess Kramer in Malibu, CA. More information, including registration details and workshop schedules, are available at the AEOE website.

We’ll be presenting the following three workshops over the weekend:

NSI: Nature Scene Investigators

We’ll model and discuss this BEETLES student activity that sets a tone at the beginning of a field experience for looking for mysteries in nature and trying to figure them out. The instructor coaches the students on how to make observations, ask questions, make connections, make evidence-based explanations, and how to engage in respectful discourse.

Engaging and Managing Students in Outdoor Science

There’s a lot of talk about the need to manage student behavior so they can participate in learning experiences–but there are specific things you can do that help encourage positive student participation and prevent negative behaviors. We’ll address how to engage students positively from the beginning by creating an environment where students have the highest chance of being the best versions of themselves, so everyone in the group can have a positive experience learn. We’ll model a short learning experience, showing how the structure of a science activity can create intrinsic motivation in students, and support their participation and learning. Novice or experienced instructors will leave with a better understanding of how to set up productive learning experiences.

Structures and Behaviors

Come participate in a BEETLES activity you can incorporate right away into student experiences focused on learning about adaptations and structure and function. The activity Structures and Behaviors engages students in building a working definition of adaptations that includes both behavioral and physical observations built on direct observation of organisms. Observing an organism for an extended period of time can also be a rewarding learning experience that helps students develop a meaningful relationship with nature.